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The US president-elect had been clear during his election campaign about his opposition to the trade deal, President Barack Obama's signature trade initiative, which was signed by 12 countries in February and covers 40 per cent of the world's economy.

It was agreed after nearly a decade of international talks between Washington and its international partners and is the most significant free trade deal since the US signed North America Free Trade Agreement in 1994.

The 12 countries that signed the deal in February are Japan, the US, Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.

Shinzo Abe, the Japanese prime minister, who was the first world leader to meet Mr Trump after his election victory, said last night the TPP "would be meaningless without the United States".

Australia's Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, said the trade partnership was manifestly in Australia's national interest.

"We believe that it is an important strategic commitment by the United States, but of course the new administration and the new congress have got to make their own assessment," he said.

A failure of the TPP would likely be welcomed by China, which was excluded from the deal and saw it as an attempt by the US to increase its clout in Beijing's backyard.

Chinese foreign ministry official Tan Jian took a veiled swipe at America on Sunday, saying that countries "should not politicize free trade arrangements."

Other policy pledges

Mr Trump's pledge on the TPP was one of six policy points that he vowed to act on as soon as he takes office on January 20.

"On energy, I will cancel job-killing restrictions on the production of American energy - including shale energy and clean coal - creating many millions of high-paying jobs. That's what we want, that's what we've been waiting for," he said.

"On regulation, I will formulate a rule which says that for every one new regulation, two old regulations must be eliminated, it's so important."

His other pledges included developing a "comprehensive plan" to guard against cyber attacks and launch a drive to investigate "all abuses of visa programmes that undercut the American worker".

Finally, as part of his promise to "drain the swamp", Mr Trump vowed "to impose a five-year ban on executive officials becoming lobbyists after they leave the administration - and a lifetime ban on executive officials lobbying on behalf of a foreign government."